meeke and peaceable In the same will a delight in the Law of God and yet a bias and counter-motion to the law of sinne In the same understanding a light of the Gospell and yet many relikes of humane principles and fleshly reasonings much ignorance of the purity excellency and beauty of the wayes of God In the same heart singlenesse and sensiblenesse of sinne and yet much secret fraud and prevarication hardnesse and dis-apprehension of sin and wrath In the same affections love of God and love of the World feare of God and feare of men trust in God and doubting of his favour Lord I beleeve helpe thou mine unbeliefe was the cry of the poore man in the Gospell and such must bee the complaints of the best of us Lord I will helpe thou mine unwillingnesse Lord I heare thee helpe thou my deafenesse Lord I remember thee helpe thou my forgetfulnesse Lord I presse towards thee helpe thou my wearinesse Lord I rejoyce in thee helpe thou my heavinesse Lord I desire to have more fellowship with thee helpe thou my strangenesse Lord I love and delight in thy Law helpe thou my failings Such tugging is there of either nature to preserve and improve it selfe Iacob was a man of contention and wrestling from the beginning Contention with his brother in the birth contention for the birth-right contention with an Angell for the blessing contention for his wife and for his wages with Laban He was a Typicall man his name was Israel and he was a patterne to the Israel of God We must be all men of contention wrestlers not onely with God in strong and importunate prayers for his blessings but with our elder brother Esau with the lusts and frowardnesse of our owne hearts The Thiefe on the Crosse was a perfect embleme of the sinne of our nature he was naild hand and foot destin'd unto death utterly disabled from any of his wonted outrages and yet that only part which was a little loose flies out in reviling and reproaching Christ Our old man by the mercy of God is upon a Crosse destin'd to death disabled from the exercise of that wonted violence and dominion which it used and yet so long as there is any life or strength left in him hee sets it all on worke to revile that blessed spirit which is come so neere him The more David prevailes the more Saul rageth and persecuteth him As in the wombe of Tamar there was a strife for precedencie Zarah thrust out his hand first and yet Pharez goâ—… foâ—…th before him so in a Christian many times the 〈◊〉 thruâ—… out the hand and begins to worke and presently the flesh growes sturdie and boisterous and gets first into the action A man sets himselfe to call upon God lifts up his hand with the skarlet thred the blood of Christ upon it is in a sweete preparation to powre out his complaints his requests his praises to his father and ere he is aware pride ln the excellencie of Gods gifts or deadnesse or worldly thoughts intrude themselves and justle-by Gods spirit and cast a blemish upon his offring A man is setting himself to heare Gods word begins to attend and rellish the things that are spoken as matters which doe in good earnest concerne his peace begins to see a beauty more then ordinary in Gods service an excellencie with David in Gods Law which hee considered not before resolves hereafter to love frequent submit beleeve prize it more then he had ever done presently the flesh sets up her mounds her reasonings her perverse disputes her owne principles her shame her worldlinesse her want of leisure her secular contentments and so resists the spirit of God and rejects his counsell I have enough already what needs this zeale this pressing this accuratenesse this violence for heaven strive wee what wee can our infirmities will encompasse us our corruptions will bee about us But yet Beloved as in a pyramide the higher you goe the lesse compasse still you finde the body to bee of and yet not without the curiositie and diligence of him that fram'd it so in a Christian mans resurrection and conversation with Christ in heaven the neerer he comes to Christ the smaller still his corruptions will bee and yet not without much spirituall industry and christian art A Christian is like a flame the higher it ascends the more thinne purified and azurie it is but yet it is a flame in greene wood that wants perpetuall blowing and encouragement A man sets himselfe with some good resolution of spirit to set forward the honor in questioning in discovering in shaming in punishing within the compasse of his owne calling and warrant the abuses of the times in countenancing in rewarding in abetting and supporting truth righteousnes his flesh presently interposeth his quiet his security his relations his interests his hopes his feares his dependencies his plausibility his credit his profit his secular provisoes these blunt his edge upbraid him with impoliticknes with malecontentednes with a sullen cynicall disposition against men and manners and thus put I know not what ill favor'd colours upon a good face to make a man out of love with an honest busines In a word good is before me the glory the service the waies of God I see it but I cannot love it I love it but I cannot doe it I doe it but I cannot finish it I will but yet I rebell I follow and yet I fall I presse forward and yet I faint and flagge I wrestle and yet I halt I pray and yet I sinne I fight and yet I am Captive I crucifie my lusts and yet they revile me I watch my heart and yet it runnes away from me God was at first the Author of nothing but peace within me what envious man hath sowed this warre in my bowels Let the Apostle answer this question saith Saint Austen By one man sinne entred into the world That which I would be I am not and that which I hate I am O wretched man in whom the Crosse of Christ hath not yet worne out the poysonous and bitter tast of that first tree It is the patheticall complaint of Bonifacius in the same Father How doth the Apostle even breake with complaining of this rebellious and captivating power of originall concupiscence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me though hee were delivered from the damnation yet hee was not delivered from the miserie of this sinne which must necessarily arise from the stirrings and conflicts of it Though lust in the regenerate bee not damnable because albeit it bring forth sinne yet it doth not finish and consummate it for it is broken off by repentance and disabled by the power of Christs spirit yet it is still miserable because it disquieteth the spirituall peace and tranquillity of the soule But there is no great danger in the warre if the enemie bee either foolish or
would not be beholden to an infamous branded person And surely Almighty God can as little endure to be honored by wicked men or to have his Name and Truth by them usurped in a false profession When the Divell who useth to bee the father of lies would needes confesse the Truth of Christ I know who thou art even Iesus the Sonne of the Living God we finde our Saviour as well rebuking him for his confession as at other times for his Temptations Because when the Divell speakes a lie he speakes De suo he doth that which becomes him but when he speakes the Truth and Glorifies God hee doth that which is improper for his place and station for who shall praise thee in the pit Hee speakes then De alieno of that which is none of his owne and then he is not a lyer onely by professing that which he hates but a theefe too And surely when men take upon them the Name of Christ and a shew of religion and yet deny the power thereof they are not only liers in professing a false love but theeves too in usurping an interest in Christ which indeede they have not and are like to have no happier successe with God who cannot be mocked then false pretenders have with men who under assumed titles of princes deceased have laid claime to kingdomes God will deale with such men as we teade that Tiberius dealt with a base pretender to a Crowne when after long examination hee could not catch the impostor tripping in his tale at last he consulted with the habite and shape of his body and finding there not the delicacie and softnesse of a Prince but the brawinnesse and servile fashion of a Mechanick he startled the man with so unexpected a triall and so wrung from him a confession of the Truth And surely just so will God deale with such men as usurpe a claime unto his Kingdome and prevaricate with his Name he will not take them on their owne words or empty professions but examine their hands If hee finde them hardned in the service of sinne hee will then stop their mouth with their owne hand and make themselves the argument of their owne conviction Thirdly the Power of pious and vertuous education for many men have their manners as the Colliar had his faith meerely by tradition and upon credit from their forefathers So saint Paul before his Conversion liv'd as touching the Law unblameably in his owne esteeme because he had beene a Pharisce of the Pharisees Many times we may observe amongst men that contrarietiâ—… of affections proceede from causes homogeneall and uniforme and that the same temper and disposition of minde will serve to produce effects in apparance contrary When two men contend with much violence to maintaine two different opinions it may easily bee discerned by a judicious stander by that it is the same love of victory the same contentious constitution of Spirit which did foster those extreme discourses and many times men would not be at such distance in tenents if they did not too much concurre in the pride and vaine glory of an opinionative minde And surely so is it in matters of religion and practise many times courses extremely opposite are embrac'd out of the selfe same uniforme frame and temper of spirit a humor pertinaciously to adhere to the wayes which a man hath beene bred in may upon contrary educations produce contrary effects and yet the principall reason bee the same as it is the same vigor and vertue of the earth which from different seedes put into it produceth different fruites So then a man may abstaine from many evils and doe many good things meerely out of respect to their breeding out of a native ingenuitie and faire opinion of their fathers pietie without any such experimentall and convincing evidence of the truth or Spirituall and Holy love of the goodnesse by which the true members of Christ are moved unto the same observances Fourthly the Legall and Affrighting Power which is in the Word when it is set on by a skilfull master of the assemblies For though nothing but the Evangelicall vertue of the Word begets true and spirituall obedience yet outward conformitie may be fashioned by the terror of it As nothing but vitall seminall and fleshly principles can organize a living and true man yet the strokes and violence of hammers and other instruments being moderated by the hand of a cunning worker can fashion the shape of a man in a dead stone As Ahab was humbled by the Word in some degree when yet he was not converted by it Fifthly the power of a naturall illightned Conscience either a wakened by some heavie affliction or affrighted with the feare of Iudgement or at best assisted with a temper of generousnesse and ingenuitie a certaine noblenesse of disposition which can by no meanes endure to be condemned by its owne witnesse nor to adventure on courses which doe directly the wart the practicall principles to which they subscribe For as I observed before many men who will not do good Obedientially with faith in the Power with submission to the Will with aime at the Glory of him that commands it will yet doe it Rationally out of the conviction and evidence of their owne principles And this the Apostle cals a doing by Nature the things contained in the Law and a being a Law to a mans selfe Now though this may carry a man farre yet it cannot pull downe the kingdome of sinne in him for these reasons First it doth not subdue All sinne All filthinesse of the flesh and spirit and so perfect â—…olynesse in the feare of God Drive a swine out of one dirty way and he will presently into another because it was not his disposition but his feare which turned him aside Where there are many of a royall race though hundreds be destroyed yet if any one that can prove his descent do remaine alive the title and soveraigntie runnes into him as wee see in the slaughter which Athaliah made so in sinne if any one bee left to exercise power over the Conscience without controle the kingdome over a mans soule belongs unto that sinne Secondly though it were possible which yet cannot be supposed for a Naturall conscience to restraine and kill all the children of sinne yet it cannot rippe up nor make barren the wombe of sinne that is Lust and Concupiscence in which the raigne of sinne is sounded Nature cannot discover much lesse can it bewaile or subdue it As long as there is a Divell to cast in the seedes of temptations and lusts to cherish forme quicken ripen them impossible it is but sinne must have an of-spring to raigne over the soule of man Thirdly all the Proficiencies of Nature cannot make a mans indeavours good before God though they may serve to excuse a man to himselfe yet not unto God If one beare holy flesh in the skirt of his garment and
in you which was in Christ that is have the same judgement opinions affections compassions as Christ had As he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation Secondly in his passive obedience though not in the end or purposes yet in the manner of it Runne with patience saith the Apostle the race which is set before you looking vnto Iesus who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse despised the shame c. If the head be gotten through a strait place all the members will venture after Therefore since Christ hath gone through shame contradiction death to his glory let us not be wearied nor faint or despaire in our mindes The head doth not thinke all its worke ended when it is gotten through it selfe but taketh care and is mindefull of the members that follow Therefore the Apostle cals our sufferings A fulfilling or making up of the sufferings of Christ. The Resolution of all is briefely this We must follow Christ in those things which hee both did and commanded not in those things which he did but not commanded But heere it may be objected Christ was Himselfe voluntarily poore Hee became poore for our sakes and he commanded poverty to the young man goe sell all that thou hast and give it to the poore Is every man to be herein a follower of Christ To this I answere in generall that poverty was not in Christ any act of Morall Obedience noâ—… to the yong man any command of Morall Obedience First for Christs poverty we may conceive that it was a requisite preparatorie act to the worke of redemption and to the magnifying of his spirituall power in the subduing of his enemies and saving of his people when it appeared that thereunto no externall accessions nor contribution of temporall greatnesse did concurre And secondly for the command to the yong man it was meerely personall and indeede not so much intending obedience to the letter of the precept as triall of the sinceritie of the mans former profession and conviction of him touching those misperswasions and selfe-deceits which made him trust in himselfe for righteousnesse like that of God to Abraham to offer up his Sonne which was not intended for death to Isaake but for tryall to Abraham and for manifestation of his faith It may be further objected How can wee bee Holy as Christ is Holy First the thing is impossible and secondly if we could there would be no neede of Christ if we were bound to bee so Holy righteousnesse would come by a Law of workes To this I answere the Law is not nullyfied nor curtall'd by the mercy of Christ we are as fully bound to the obedience of it as Adam was though not upon such bad termes and evill consequences as he under danger of contracting sinne though not under danger of incurring death So much as any justified person comes short of complete and universall obedience to the Law so much hee sinneth as Adam did though God be pleased to pardon that sinne by the merit of Christ. Christ came to deliver from sinne but not to priviledge any man to commit it though hee came to be a curse for sinne yet Hee came not to be a Cloake for sinne Secondly Christ is needefull in two respects First because we cannot come to full and perfect obedience and so His Grace is requisite to pardon and cover our failings Secondly because that which wee doe attaine unto is not of or from our selves and so his spirit is requisite to strengthen us unto his service Thirdly when the Scripture requires us to be Holy and perfect as Christ and God by as we understand not equalitie in the compasse but qualitie in the Truth of our Holynesse As when the Apostle saith That we must love our neighbour as our selves the meaning is not that our love to our neighbour should be mathematically equall to the love of our selves for the Law doth allow of degrees in Love according to the degrees of relation and neerenesse in the thing loved Doe good unto all men specially to those of the houshold of Faith Love to a friend may safely bee greater then to a stranger and to a wife or childe then to a friend yet in all our love to others must be of the selfe same nature as true reall cordiall sincere solid as that to our selves Wee must love our neighbour as wee doe our selves that is unfainedly and without dissimulation Let vs further consider the Grounds of this point touching the Conformitie which is betweene the nature and spirituall life of Christians and of Christ because it is a Doctrine of principall consequence First this was one of the Ends of Christs comming Two purposes He came for A restitution of us to our interest in Salvation and a restoring our originall qualities of Holynesse unto vs. Hee came to sanctifie and cleanse the Church that it should be Holy and without blemish unblameable and unreproveable in his sight To Redeeme and to purifie his people The one is the worke of his Merit which goeth upward to the Satisfaction of his Father the other the worke of his Spirit and Grace which goeth downeward to the Sanctification of his Church In the one He bestoweth his righteousnesse upon us by imputation in the other He fashioneth his â—…mage in us by renovation That man then hath no claime to the payment Christ hath made nor to the inheritance Hee hath purchased who hath not the Life of Christ fashioned in his nature and conversation But if Christ be not onely a Saviour to Redeeme but a Rule to Sanctifie what use or service is left unto the Law I answere that the Law is still a Rule but not a comfortable effectuall delightfull rule without Christ applying and sweetning it unto us The Law onely comes with commands but Christ with strength love willingnesse and life to obey them The Law alone comes like a Schoolemaster with a scourge a curse along with it but when Christ comes with the Law He comes as a Father with precepts to teach and with compassions to spare The Law is a Lion and Christ our Sampson that slew the Lion as long as the Law is alone so long it is alive and comes with terrour and fury upon every Soule it meetes but when Christ hath slaine the Law taken away that which was the strength of it namely the guilt of sinne then there is honie in the Lion sweetnesse in the duties required by the Law It is then an easie yoke and a Law of libertie the Commandements are not then grievous but the heart delighteth in them and loveth them even as the honie and the honie combe Of it selfe it is the cord of a Iudge which bindeth hand and foote and shackleth unto condemnation but by Christ it is made the cord of a man and the band of Love by which He teacheth us to goâ—…
tasting no sense that is the instrument of so neere a union as that So then as the motion of the mouth in eating is not in the nature of a motion any whit more excellent then the motion of the eye or foote or of it selfe in speaking yet in the instrumentall office of life and nourishment it is farre more necessarie So though Faith in the substance of it as it is an inherent qualitie hath no singular excellencie above other graces yet as it is an instrument of conveying Christ our spirituall Bread unto our soules and so of assimilating and incorporating us into Him which no other Grace can doe no more then the motion of the eye or foote can nourish the body so it is the most pretious and usefull of all others It may be objected doe not other graces joyne a man unto Christ as well as Faith Vnion is the proper effect of Love therefore wee are one with Christ as well by loving Him as by beleeving in Him To this I answere that Love makes onely a morall union in affections but Faith makes a mysticall union a more close and intimate fellowship in nature betweene us and Christ. Besides Faith is the immediate tie betweene Christ and a Christian but love a secondary union following upon and grounded on the former By nature we are all enemies to Christ and His Kingdome of the Iewes minde wee will not have this man to raigne over us therefore till by Faith wee are throughly perswaded of Christs Love to us we can never repay Love to Him againe Herein is Love saith the Apostle not that wee loved God but that Hee loved us and sent His Sonne 1. Ioh. 4 10. Now betweene Gods Love and ours comes Faith to make us One with Christ we have knowne and beleeved the Love that God hath to us ver 16. And hence it followes that because by Faith as Hee is so are wee in this world therefore Our love to Him is made perfect and so wee love Him because Hee first loved us vers 19. So that we see the union we have with Christ by Love presupposeth the Vnitie wee have in Him by Faith so Faith still hath the preeminence The second office wherein consists the excellencie of Faith is a consequent of the former namely to justifie a man for there is no man righteous in the sight of God any further then he is taken into the unitie of Christ and into the fellowship of His Merits God is alone well pleased in Christ and till a man be a member of His Bodie a part of His fulnesse hee cannot appeare in Gods presence This was the reason why Christ would have none of His bones broken or taken of from the Communion of His naturall body Ioh. 19. 36. to note the indissoluble union which was to bee betweene Him and His mysticall Members So that now as in a naturall bodie the member is certainely fast to the whole so long as the bones are firme and sound so in the mysticall where the body is there must every member be too because the bones must not be broken asunder If then Christ goe to Heaven if Hee stand unblameable before Gods justice we al shal in him appeare so too because his bones cannot be broken That which thus puts us into the Vnitie of Christ must needs Iustifie our persons and set us right in the presence of God and this is our Faith The Apostle gives two excellent reasons why our Iustification should be of Faith rather then of any other grace The first on Gods part that it might bee of Grace The second on the part of the promise that the promise might be sure to all the seede Rom. 4. 16. First Iustification that is by Faith is of meere Grace and favour no way of worke or merit For the Act whereby Faith Iustifies is an act of humility and selfe-dereliction a holy despaire of any thing in our selves and a going to Christ a receiving a looking towards Him and His Al-sufficiencie so that as Marie said of her selfe so we may say of Faith The Lord hath respect unto the lowlynes of his grace which is so farre from looking inward for matter of Iustification that it selfe as it is a worke of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere doth not justifie but onely as it is an apprehension or taking hold of Christ. For as the hand in the very receiving of a thing must needs first make it selfe emptie If it bee full before it must let all that goe ere it can take hold on any other thing So Faith being a receiving of Christ Ioh. 1. 12. must needes suppose an emptinesse in the soule before Faith hath two properties as a Hand To worke and to receive when Faith purifies the heart supports the droaping spirits worketh by love carries a man through afflictions and the like these are the workes of Faith when Faith Accepts of righteousnesse in Christ and receives Him as the gift of His Fathers Love when it embraceth the promises a farre of Heb. 11. 13. and layes hold on Eternall Life 1. Tim. 6. 12. This is the receiving act of Faith Now Faith justifies not by working lest the effect should not bee wholly of Grace but partly of Grace and partly of worke Ephesians 2. 8 9. but by bare receiving and accepting or yeelding consent to that righteousnesse which in regard of working was the righteousnesse of Christ Rom. 5. 18. and in regard of disposing imputing appropriating unto us was the righteousnesse of God Rom. 3. 21. 1. Cor. 1 30. Phil 3. 9. To make the point of Iustification by the receiving and not the working of Faith plaine let us consider it by a familiar similitude Suppose a Chirurgian should perfectly cure the hand of a poore man from some desperate wound which utterly disabled him for any worke when he hath so done should at one time freely bestow some good almes upon the man to the receiving whereof he was enabled by the former cure and at another time should set the man about some worke unto the which likewise the former cure had enabled him and the worke being done should give him a reward proportionable to his labour I demaund which of these two gifts are arguments of greater grace in the man either the recompensing of that labour which was wrought by the strength hee restored or the free bestowing of an equall gift unto the receiving whereof likewise he himselfe gave abilitie Any man will easily answere that the gift was a worke of more free grace then the reward though unto both way was made by His owne mercifull cure for all the mercy which was shewed in the cure was not able to nullifie the intrinsecall proportion which afterwards did arise betweene the worke and the reward Now this is the plaine difference betweene our doctrine and the doctrine of our adversaries in the point of Iustification They say we are justified by Grace and yet by workes because
art That God that is the same God in thy fidelity and mercy as then thou wert and thy words be true and thou hast promised this goodnesse to thy servant therefore let it please thee to blesse the house of thy Servant c. Excellent to this purpose is that which S. Austin obserues of his mother who very often and earnestly prayed unto God for hâ—…r sonne when he was an Hereticke Chirographa tua ingerebat tibi Lord saith he she urged thee with thine owne hand-writing she challenged in an humble and fearefull confidence the performance of thine owne obligations Thirdly and lastly by this meanes wee hasten the performance of Gods decreed mercies we retardate yea quite hinder his almost purposed and decreed Iudgements The Lord had resolved to restore Israel to their wonted peace and honour yet for all these things will I be enquired vnto by the House of Israel to doe it for them saith He in the Prophet The Lord had threatned destruction against Israel for their Idolatry had not Moses stood before him in the breach to turne away his wrath as the Psalmist speakes And we reade of the Primitive Christians that their prayers procured raine from heaven when the Armies of the Emperours were even famished for want of water and that their very persecutors have begg'd their prayers Secondly as by prayer the Creature is sanctified in the procurement for no man hath reason to beleeue that there is any blessing intended vnto him by God in any of the good things which doe not come in vnto him by prayer so in the next place the Creature is by Prayer sanctified in the fruition thereof because to enjoy the portion allotted us and to rejoyce in our labour is the Gift of God as Salomon speakes The Creature of it selfe is not onely Dead and therefore unable to minister life by it selfe alone but which is worse by the meanes of mans sinne it is Deadly too and therefore apt to poyson the receivers of it without the corrective of Gods Grace Pleasure is a thing in it selfe lawfull but corruption of nature is apt to make a man a lover of pleasure more then a lover of God and then is that mans pleasure made unto him the metropolis of mischiefe as Clemens Alexandâ—…inus speakes A good name is better then sweet oyntment and more to be desired then much riches but corruption is apt to put a flie of vaine-glory and selfeaffectation into this oyntment to make a man foolishly feed upon his owne credit and with the Pharisies to doe all for applause and preferre the praise of men before the glory of God and then our sweet oyntment is degenerated into a curse Woe bee unto you when all men shall speake well of you Riches of themselves are the good gifts and blessings of God as Salomon saith The blessing of the Lord maketh rich but corruption is apt to breed by this meanes covetousnesse pride selfe-dependency forgetfulnesse of God scorne of the Gospell and the like and then these earthly blessings are turned into the curse of the earth into Thornes and Briers as the Apostle speakes They that will be rich pierce themselves thorow with many sorrowes Learning in it selfe is an honourable and a noble endowment it is recorded for the glory of Moses that hee was learned in all the wisedome of the Egyptians but corruption is apt to turne learning into leauen to infect the heart with pride which being arm'd and seconded with wit breakes forth into perverse disputes and corrupts the minde Therefore Saint Paul advised the Christians of his time to beware lest any man spoile them through Philosophy and begvile them with entising words And the ancient Fathers counted the Philosophers the Seminaries of heresie Proofe whereof to let passe the Antitrinitarians and Pelagians and other ancient Hereâ—…ikes who out of the nicenesse of a quaint wit perverted Gods truth to the patronage of their lyes and to passe by the Schoolemen and Iesuites of late Ages who haue made the way to heaven a very labyrinth of crooked subtilties and have weav'd Divinity into Cobwebs wee may have abundantly in those Libertines and Cyrenians who disputed with Stephen and those Stoicks that wrangled with Saint Paul about the resurrection And now learning being thus corrupted is not onely turned into wearinesse but into very notorious and damnable folly for thinking themselves wise saith the Apostle they became fooles and their folly shall be made kâ—…owne unto all men To get wealth in an honest and painefull Calling is a great blessing for the diligent hand maketh rich but corruption is apt to perswade unto cozenage lying equivocation fals weights ingrossements monopolies and other Arts of cruelty and unjustice and by this meanes ouâ—… law full Callings are turned into abominations mysteries of iniquity and a pursuit of death Every creature of God is good in it selfe and allowed both for necessitie and delight but corruption is apt to abuse the Creatures to luxury and excesse to drunkennesse gluttony and inordinate lusts and by this meanes a mans table is turned into a Snare as the Psalmist speakes Now then since all the world is thus bespread with ginnes it mainely concernes us alwayes to pray that we may use the world as not abusing it that wee may enjoy the Creatures with such wisedome temperance sobriety heavenly affections as may make them so many ascents to raise us neerer unto God as so many glasses in which to contemplate the wisedome providence and care of God to men as so many witnesses of his love and of our duty And thus doth prayer sanctifie the Creature in the use of it Lastly and in one word Prayer sanctifies the Creatures in the review and recognition of them and Gods mercy in them with thanksgiving and thoughts of praise as Iacob Gen. 32. 9. 10. and David 2. Sam. 7. 18. 21. looked upon God in the blessings with which hee had blessed them And now since Prayer doth thus sanctifie the Creatures unto us wee should make friends of the unrighteous Mammon that wee may by that meanes get the prayers of the poore Saints upon us and our estate that the eye which seeth us may blesse us and the care that heareth us may give witnesse to us that the loynes and the mouthes the backes and the bellies of the poore and fatherlesse may be as so many reall supplications unto God for us The third and last direction which I shall give you to finde life in the Creature shall bee to looke on it and love it in its right order with subordination to God and his promises to love it after God and for God as the beame which conveyes the influences of life from him as his instrument moved and moderated by him to those ends for which it serves to love it as the Cisterne not as the fountaine of life to make Christ the foundation and all other
spue and rise up no more even that fierce and bitter indignation in the pouring out of which the Lord shall put to his right hand his strong arme not onely the terror of his presence but the glory of his power I say the Lord could let drunkards alone till at last they meet with this Cup which undoubtedly they shall doe if there be either truth in Gods word or power in his right hand if there be either Iustice in heaven or fire in hell till with Belshazzar they meet with dregs and trembling in the bottome of all their Cups but yet oftentimes the Lord smites them with a more sudden blow snatcheth away the Cup from their very mouths and so makes one Curse anticipate and preuent another Though Haman and Achitophel should have liv'd out the whole thred of their life yet at last their honor must have laine downe in the dust with them Though Iudas could have liv'd a thousand yeares and could have improv'd the reward of his Masters bloud to the best advantage that ever Vsurer did yet the rust would at last have seiz'd upon his bags and his monie must have perished with him but now the Lord sets forward his Curse and that which the moth would have been long in doing the gallows dispatcheth with a more swift destruction Thus as the body of a man may have many summons and engagements unto one death may labour at once under many desperate diseases all which by a malignant conâ—…unction must needs hasten a mans end as Cesar was stabd with thirty wounds each one whereof might have serv'd to let out his soule so the Creatures of God labouring under a manifold corruption doe as it were by so many wings post away from the Owners of them and for that reason must needs be utterly disproportionable to the condition of an Immortall Soule Now to make some Application of this particular before wee leave it This doth first discover and shame the folly of wicked worldlings both in their opinions and affections to earthly things Love is blinde and will easily make men beleeve that of any thing which they could wish to bee in it and therefore because wicked men wish with all their hearts for the love they beare to the Creatures that they might continue together for ever the Divell doth at last so deeply delude them as to thinke that they shall continue for ever Indeed in these and in the generall they must needs confesse that one generation commeth and another goeth but in their owne particular they can never assume with any feeling and experimentall assent the truth of that generall to their owne estates And therefore what ever for shame of the world their outward professions may be yet the Prophet David assures us That their inward Thoughts their owne retir'd contrivances and resolutions are that their houses shall endure for ever and their dwelling places to all generations and upon this Immortality of stones and monuments they resolve to rest But the psalmist concludes this to be but brutish and notorious folly This their way is their folly they like sheepe are laid downe in their graves and death feeds upon them And indeed what a folly is it for men to build upon the sand to erectan Imaginarie fabrick of I know not what Immortality which hath not so much as a constant subsistence in the head that contrives it What man will ever goe about to build a house with much cost and when he hath done to inhabit it himself of such rotten and inconsistent materials as will undoubtedly within a yeere or two after fall upon his head and bury him in the ruines of his owne folly Now then suppose a man were lord of all the World and had his life coextended with it were furnished with wisedome to manage and strength to runne through all the affaires incident to this vast frame in as ample a measure as any one man for the governement of a private family yet the Scripture would assure even such a man that there will come a day in which the heavens shall passe away with a noise and the elements shall melt with heate and the earth with the workes that are therein shall be burnt up and that there is but one houre to come before all this shall be Behold now is the last houre And what man upon these termes would fix his heart and ground his hopes upon such a tottering bottome as will within a little while crumble into dust and leave the poore soule that rested upon it to sinke into hell But now when we consider that none of us labour for any such inheritance that the extremitie of any mans hopes can be but to purchase some little patch of earth which to the whole World cannot beare so neere a proportion as the smallest molehill to this whole habitable earth that all we toyle for is but to have our loade of a little thicke clay as the Prophet speakes that when wee have gotten it neither wee nor it shall continue till the universall dissolution but in the midst of our dearest embracements we may suddenly be puld asunder and come to a fearefull end it must needs be more then brutish stupidity for a man to weave the Spiders webs to wrappe himselfe up from the consumption determined against the whole earth in a covering that is so infinitely too short and too narrow for him Wee will conclude this particular with the doome given by the Prophet Ieremy As the Partridge sitteth on egges and hatcheth them not shee is either caught by the fowler or her egges are broken so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his dayes and in the end shall bee a foole Secondly this serves to justifie the wisedome and providence of God in his proceedings with men The wicked here provoke God and cry aloud for vengeance on their owne head and the Lord seemes to stop his eares at the cry of sinne and still to loade them with his blessings he maketh their way to prosper they take roote and grow and bring forth fruite they shine like a blazing Comet and threaten ruine to all that looke upon them they carry themselves like some Tyrant in a Tragedy that scatters abroad death with the sparkles of his eyes and darts out threats against the heaven aboue him they are like Agag before Samuel clothed very delicately and presume that there is no bitternesse to come And now the impatiency of man that cannot resolve things into their proper issues that cannot let iniquitie ripen nor reconcile one day and a thousand yeeres together begins to question Gods proceedings and is afraid leâ—…t the World be governed blindfold and blessings and curses throwne confusedly abroad for men as it were to scramble and to scuffie for them But our God who keepeth times and seasons in his owne power who hath given to every Creature under the Sunne limits
presently extingvished They are quenched like a fire of Thornes To consider yet more distinctly the vexation of the Creature we will observe first the Degrees secondly the Grounds of it and thirdly the Vses which we should put it to Five Degrees we shall observe of this Vexation First the Creatures are apt to molest the spirit in the procuring of them even as Thornes will certainely pricke in their gathering They make all a mans dayes sorrow and his travell griefe they suffer not his heart to take rest in the night as the Wise man speakes What paines will men take what hazards will they runne to procure their desires Paines of body plotting of braine conflicts of passions biting of conscience disreputation amongst men scourge of tongues any thing every thing will men adventure to obtaine at last that which it may bee is not a competent reward for the smallest of these vexations How will men exchange their salvation throw away their owne mercy make themselves perpetuall drudges and servitors to the times fawne flatter comply couple in with the instruments or authors of their hopes hazard their owne blood in desperate undertakings and staine their consciences with the blood of others to swimme through all to their adored haven Adâ—…rare vulgus iacere oscula omnia serviliter pro imperio The Historian spake it of Otho that Romane Absolom he worshipped the people dispenced frequently his courtesies and plausibilities crouched and accommodated himselfe to the basest routs that thereby he might creepe into an usurped honour and get himselfe a hated memory in after ages And that the like vexation is ordinary in the procurement of any earthly things will easily appeare if wee but compare the disposition of the minde with the obstacles that meete us in the pursuite of them Suppose we a man importunately set to travell unto some place where the certainty of some great profit or preferment attends his comming the way through which he must goe is intricate deepe unpassable the beast that carries him lame and tired his acquaintance none his instructions few what a heavie vexation must this needs bee to the soule of that man to be crossed with so many difficulties in so eager a desire Iust this is the case with naturall men in the prosecution of earthly things First the desires of men are very violent which the Scripture useth to expresse by making haste greedy coveting a purpose to be rich Qui Dives fieri vult citâ—… vult fieri they that will be rich cannot be quiet till their desires are accomplished and therefore wee finde strong desires in the Scripture-phrase expressed by such things as give intimation of paine with them The Apostle describes them by groâ—…ing and sighing the Prophet David by panting and gasping the Spouse in the Canticles by sicknesse I am sicke with love Thus Ammon grew leane for the desire of his sister and was vexed and sicke thus Ahab waxed heavy and laid him downe on his bed and turned away his face and would not eate because of Naboths Vineyard So that very importunity of desires is full of vexation in itselfe But besides the meanes for fulfilling these desires are very difficult the instruments very weake and impotent peradventure a mans wits are not suteable to his desires or his strength not to his wits or his stocke not to his strength his friends few his corrivals many his businesses tough and intricate his counsels uncertaine his projects way-laid and prevented his contrivances dashed and disappointed such a circumstance vnseene such a casualty starting suddenly out such an occurrence meeting the action hath made it unfeasible and shipwrack'd the expectation A man deales with the earth he findes it weake and langvid every foot of that must often times lye fallow when his desires doe still plow with men hee findes their hearts hard and their hands close with servants he findes them slow and unfaithfull with trading hee findes the times hard the World at a stand every man too thrifty to deale much and too crafty to be deceived so that now that vexation which was at first begun with vehemency of desire is mightily improued with impatiency of opposition lastly much encreased with the feare of utter disappointment at last For according as the desires are either more urgent or more difficult so will the feares of their miscarriage grow and it is a miserable thing for the minde to bee torne asunder betweene two such violent passions as Desire and Feare The second Degree of vexation is in the multiplying of the Creature that men may have it to looke upon with their eyes and to worship it in their affections And in this Case the more the heape growes the more the heart is enlarged unto it and impossible it is that that desire should be ever quieted which growes by the fruition of the thing desired A Wolfe that hath once tasted blood is more fierce in the desire of it then hee was before experience puts an edge upon the Appetite and so it is in the desires of men they grow more savage and raging in the second or third prosecution then in the first It is a usuall selfe-deceit of the heart to say and thinke If I had such an accession to mine estate such a dignitie mingled with mine other preferments could but leave such and such portions behind me I should then rest satisfied and desire no more This is a most notorious cheate of the fleshly heart of man first thereby to beget a secret conceit that since this being gotten I should sit quietly downe I may therefore set my selfe with might and maine to procure it and in the meane time neglect the state of my soule and peradventure shipwracke my conscience upon indirect and unwarrantable meanes for fulfilling so warrantable and just a desire And secondly thereby likewise to inure and habituate the affections to the love of the world to plunge the soule in earthly delights and to distill a secret poyson of greedinesse into the heart For it is with worldly love as with the Sea let it have at the first never so little a gap at which to creepe in and it will eate out a wider way till at last it grow too strong for all the bulwarkes and overrun the soule Omne peccatum habet in se mendacium there is something of the lie in every sinne but very much in this of worldlinesse which gets upon a man with slender and modest pretences till at last it gather impudence and violence by degrees even as a man that runnes downe a steepe hill is at last carried not barely by the impulsion of his owne will but because at first hee engaged himselfe upon such a motion as in the which it would prove impossible for him to stop at his pleasure Wee reade in Saint Austens confessions of Alipius his Companion who being by much importunity overcome to accompany a friend of his to those bloody
Grace is sufficient for thee and hee confesseth it elsewhere I am able to doe all things through Christ that strengthens me Christs head hath sanctified any thornes his back any surrowes his hands any nailes his side any speare his heart any sorrow that can come to mine Againe have I a great estate am I loden with abundance of earthly things this takes away all the Vexation that I have Christ with me his promise to sanctifie it his wisedome to manage it his glory to be by it advanced his word to be by it maintained his Anointed Ones to be by it supplied his Church to be by it repaired in one word his poverty to be by it relieved For as Christ hath strength and compassion to take of the burden of our afflictions so hath he poverty too to ease that vexation which may grow from our abundance If thou hadst a whole wardrobe of cast apparrell Christ hath more nakednesse then all that can cover if whole barnes ful of corne and cellars of wine Christ hath more empty bowels then al that can fill if all the pretious drugs in a country Christ hath more sicknes then all that can cure if the power of a mighty Prince Christ hath more imprisonment then all that can enlarge if a whole house full of silver and gold Christ hath more distressed members to be comforted more breaches in his Church to be repaired more enemies of his Gospel to be oppos'd more defenders of his faith to be supplied more urgencies of his Kingdom to be attended then al that wil serve for Christ professeth himself to be still hungry naked sick and in prison and to stand in need of our visits and supplies As all the good which Christ hath done is ours by reason of our communion with him so all the ◅vill wee suffer is Christs by reason of his compassion with us The Apostle saith that we sit together with Christ in heavenly places and the same Apostle saith that the suffrings of Christ are made up in his mēbers Nos ibi sedemus et ille hic laborat We are glorified in him and he pained in us in all his honor we are honored and in al our affliction he is afflicted Thirdly cast out thy Ionah every sleeping and secure sinne that brings a Tempest upon thy ship vexation to thy spirit It may be thou hast an execrable thing a wedge of gold a babylonish garment a bagge full of unjust gaine gotten by sacriledge disobedience mercilesnes oppression by detaining Gods or thy neighbours rights It may be thou hast a Da◅la a strange woman in thy bosome that brings a rot upon thine estate and turnes it all into the wages of a whore what ever thy sicknesse what ever thy plague be as thou tenderest the tranquillity of thine estate rouse it up from its sleepe by a faithfull serious and impartiall examination of thine owne heart and though it be as deare to thee as thy right eye or thy right hand thy choicest pleasure or thy chiefest profit yet cast◅ out in an humble confession unto God in a hearty and willing restitution unto men in opening thy close and contracted bowels to those that never yet enjoy'd comforts from them then shall quietnesse arise unto thy soule and that very gaine which thou throwest away is but cast upon the waters the Lord will provide a Whale to keepe it for thee and will at last restore it thee whole againe The last direction which I shall give to remove the vexation of the Creature is out of the text and that is To keepe it from thy Spirit not to suffer it to take up thy thoughts and inner man They are not negotia but viatica onely and a mans heart ought to be upon his businesse and not upon accessories If in a tempest men should not addresse themselves to their offices to loose the tacklings to draw the pumpe to strike sailes and lighten the vessell but should make it their sole worke to gaze upon their commodities who could expect that a calme should droppe into such mens laps Beloved when the Creatures have rais'd a tempest of vexation thinke upon your Offices to the pumpe to powre out thy corruptions to the sailes and tackling abate thy lusts and the provisions of them to thy faith to live above hope to thy patience It is the Lord let him doe as seemeth good to him to thy thankfulnesse the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away Blessed be the name of the Lord. If Iob should have gazed on his children or substance he might have been swallowed up in the storme but God was in his heart and so the vessell was still safe But what is it to keepe the Creature from the spirit It is in the phrase of Scripture N◅t to set the Heart upon riches Apponere cor to carry a mans heart to the creature the Prophet gives a fit expression of it when hee saith That the heart doth g◅t after covetousnesse when a man makes all the motions of his soule waite upon his lusts and drudgeth for them and bringeth his heart to the edge of the creature for the world doth not wound the heart but the heart woundeth it selfe upon the world And it is not the rock alone that dasheth the ship without its own motion being first tossed by the winde and waves upon the rocke so it is a mans owne lust which vexeth his spirit and not the things alone which he possesseth To set the heart on the Creature denotes three things First to pitch a mans thoughts and studies to direct all the restlesse enquiries of his soule upon them and the good he expects from them This in the Scripture is expressed by Devising Consulting Thinking within ones selfe being tossed like a Meteor with doubtfulnesse of minde and carefull suspence Ioyning ones selfe making Provision for lusts c. Secondly to care for to employ a mans affections of love delight desire upon them to set a high price on them and over-rate them above other things For this cause covetous men are call'd Idolaters because they preferre monie as a man doth his God before all other things When the women would have comforted the wife of Phineas with the birth of a sonne after the captivitie of the Arke it is said she regarded it not the Text is she did not put her heart upon it though a woman rejoyce when a man childe is borne yet in comparison of the Arke she no more regarded the joy of a sonne then a man would doe if the sunne should be blotted out of heaven and a little starre put in the roome and therefore though children be the glory of their parents yet shee professeth that there was no glory in this to have a sonne and lose an Arke a starre without light a sonne without service a levite borne and no Arke to waite upon and therefore she did not set her
heart upon thine Asses for the desire of Israel is upon thee Why should a Kings heart be set upon Asses so may I say why should Christians hearts be set upon earthly things since they have the desires of all flesh to fix upon I will conclude with one word upon the last particu lar How to use the Creatures as Thornes or as vexing things First Let not the Bramble be King Let not earthly things beare rule over thy affections fire will rise out of them which will consume thy Cedars emasculate all the powers of thy Soule Let Grace sit in the throne and earthly things be subordinate to the wisdome and rule of Gods Spirit in thy heart They are excellent servants but pernicious Masters Secondly Be arm'd when thou touchest or medlest with them Arm'd against the Lusts and against the Temptations that arise from them Get faith to place thy heart upon better promises enter not upon them without prayer unto God that since thou art going amongst snares he would carry thee through with wisedome and faithfulnesse and teach thee how to use them as his blessings and as instruments of his glory Make a covenant with thine heart as Iob with his eyes have a jealousie and suspicion of thine evill heart lest it be surpriz'd and bewitched with finfull affections Thirdly touch them gently doe not hug love dote upon the Creature nor graspe it with adulterous embraces the love of mony is a roote of mischiefe and is enmity against God Fourthly use them for Hedges and fences to relieve the Saints to make friends of unrighteous Mammon to defend the Church of Christ but by no meanes have them In thy field but onely About it mingle it not with thy Corne least it choake and stifle all And lastly vse them as Gedeon for weapons of Iust revenge against the enemies of Gods Church to vindicate his truth and glory and then by being wise and faithfull in a little thou shalt at last be made ruler over much and enter into thy Masters Ioy. FINIS THE SINFVLNES OF SINNE Considered in the State Guilt Power and Pollution thereof By EDWARD REYNOLDS Preacher to the Honourable Societie of Lincolns Inne PAX OPVLENTIAM SAPIENTIA PACEM FK LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostocke 1631. THE SINFVLNESSE OF SINNE ROM 7. 9. For I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came Sinne revived and I died WEE have seene in the foriner Treatise that man can finde no Happinesse in the Creature I will in the next place shew That he can find no happinesse in Himselfe It is neither about him nor within him In the Creature nothing but vanitis and vexation in Himselfe nothing but Sinne and Death The Apostle in these words sets forth three things First The state of Sinne Sinne Revived Secondly the Guilt of Sinne I Died or found my selfe to be a condemn'd man in the state of perdition Thirdly the evidence and conviction of both When the Commandement came which words imply a conviction and that from the spirit First a conviction for they inferre a conclusion extremely contradictory to the conclusions in which Saint Paul formerly rested which is the forme of a conviction Saint Pauls former conclusion was I was alive but when the commandement came the conclusion was extremely contrary I Died. Secondly It was a spirituall conviction For Saint Paul was never literally without the Law but the vaâ—…le till this time was before his eyes he is now made to understand the Law in its native sense and compasse the Law is spiritual v. 14. and he is enabled to discerne it spiritually Absurd is the Doctrine of the Socinians some others That unregenerate men by a meere natur all perception without any divine superinâ—…us'd light they are the words of Episcopius and they are wicked wordes may understand the wholâ—… Law even all things requisite unto faith godlines Foolishly confounding and impiously deriding the spirituall and divine sense of holy Scriptures with the grammatical construction Against this we shall need use no other argument then a plaine Syllogisme compounded out of the very words of Scripture Darknesse doth not comprehend light Ioh. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 men are Darkenesse Eph. 5. 8. 4. 17. 18. Act. 26. 18. 2. Pâ—…t 1. 9. yea Held under the power of darkenesse Col. 1. 13. and the word of God is light Psal. 119. 105. 2. Cor. 4. 4. therefore unregenerate men cannot understand the â—…d in that spirituall compasse which it carries There is such an asymmetry and disproportion betweene our understandings and the brightnesse of the word that the Saints themselves have prayed for more spirituall light and vnderstanding to conceive it That knowledge which a man ought to have for there is a knowledge which is not such as it ought to be doth passe knowledge even all the â—…ength of meere naturall reason to attaine unto peculiar to the sheep of Christ. Naturall men have their principles vitiated their faculties bound that they cannot understand spirituall things till God have as it were â—…nplanted a â—…ew understanding in them framed the heart to attend and set it at liberty to see the glory of God with open face Though the vaile doe not keepe out Grammaticall construction yet it blindeth the heart against the spirituall light and beauty of the Word We see even in common sciences where the conclusions are suteable to our owne innate and implanted notions yet he that can distinctly construe and make Grammar of a principle in Euclide may be ignorant of the Mathematicall sense and use of it much more may a man in divine truths bee Spiritually ignorant even where in some respect hee may be said to know For the Scriptures pronounce men ignorant of those things which they see and know In divine doctrine obedience is the Ground of knowledge and Holinesse the best qualification to understand the Scriptures If any mâ—…n will doe the will of God he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God The 〈◊〉 will he teach his way and â—…eale his secret to them that feare him to babes to those that conforme not themselves to this evill world To understand then the words we must note first that there is an opposition between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those two Clauses in the Text Once and When the Commandement came It is the conceite of some that the latter as well as the former is meant of a state of unregeneration and that Saint Paul all this Chapter over speaketh in the person of an unregenerate man not intending at all to shew the fleshlinesse and adherency of corruption to the holiest men but the necessitie of righteousnesse by Christ without the which though a man may when once the Commandement comes and is fully revealed will good hate sinne in sinning doe that which he would not
consent unto and delight in the Law feele a warre in his members mourne and cry out under the sense of his owne wretchednesse yet for all this he is still an unregenerate man an opinion tending directly to the honour of Pelagianisme and advancement of nature which made Saint Austen in that ingenuous and noble worke of hiâ—… retractations to recant it and in all his writings against the Pelagians in which as in other polemicall workes where the vigilancy of an enemy and feare of advantages makes him more circumspect how he speaks his expositions of Scripture are usually more literall and solid then where he allowes himselfe the scope of his owne conceits He still understandes those passages of the complaints of a regenerate man against his inherent concupiscence We are therefore to resolve that the opposition stands thus Once in my state of unregeneration I was without the law that is without the spirituall sense of the Law but when the Lord began to reveale his mercy to me in my conversion then he gave me eye to understand it in its native and proper compasse The Apostle was never quite without the Law being an Hebrew and bred up at thefeet of Gamaliâ—…l therefore the difference betweene being without the Law and the comming of the Law must be onely in modo exhibendi before he had it in the letter but after it came in its owne spirituall shape And there is some emphasis in the word caâ—…e denoting a vital moving penetrative power which the Law had by the spirit of life and which before it had not as it was a Dead letter Secondly wee must note the opposition betweene the two estates of Saint Paul In the first he was Alive and that in two respects A live in his performances able as he conceiv'd to performe the righteousnesse of the law without blaâ—…e Phil. 3. 6. A live in his Presumptions mispersuasions selfe-justifications conceits of righteousnesse and salvation Act. 26. 9. Phil. 3. 7. In the second estate Sinne revived I found that that was but a sopor a benumdnesse which was in my apprehension a death of sinne and I died had experience of the falsenesse and miseries of my presumptions The life of sinne and the life of a sinner are like the ballances of a paire of scoles when one goes up the other must fall downe when sinne lives the man must dye man and sinne are like Mâ—…entius his couples they are never both alive together Many excellent points and of great consequence to the spirits of men would rise out of these words thus unfolded as First that a man may have the Law in the Church wherein he lives in the letter of it and yet bee without the Law in the power and spirit of it by ignorance misconstructions false glosses and perverse wrestings of it as a covetous man may have the possession of monie and yet be without the vse and comforts of it 2. Cor. 3. 6. 2. Pâ—…t 3. 16. Matth. 5. 21. 22. 27. 28. 31. 32. 33. 38. Which should teach us to beware of Ignorance It makes the things which wee have unusefull to us If any man have the Law indeed hee will labour First to have more acquaintance with it and with God by it The more the Saints know of God and his will the neereâ—… communion doe they desire to have with him Wee see this heavenly affection in Iacob Gen. 32. 26. 29. Gen. 49. 18. in Moses Exod. 33. 12. 18. in David Psal 119. 18. 125. in the Spouse Cant. 1. 2. in Manoah Iud. 13. 17. in Paul 2. Cor. 5. 2. Phil. 3. 13. 14. As the Queene of She ba when shee had heard of the glory of Salomon was not content till she came to see it or as Absolom being restor'd from banishment and tasting some of his Fathers love was impatient till he might see his face so the Saints having something of Gods will and mercy revealed to them are very importunate to enjoy more Secondly to be more conformable unto it to Iudge and measure himselfe the oftner by it Psal. 119. 11. The law is utterly in vaine no dignity no benefit nor priviledge to a people by it if it be not obeyed Thirdly to love and praise God for his goodnesse in it Ioh. 14. 21. Secondly ignorance of the true meaning of the Law and resting upon false grounds doth naturally beget these two things First blinde zeale much active and in appearance unblameable devotion As it did here and elsewhere in Saint Paul Phil. 3. 6. Act. 22. 3. in the honourable women Act. 13. 50. in the Pharises Matth. 23. 15. in false brethren Col. 2. 23. in the Iewes that submitted not themselves to the righteousnesse of God Rom. 10. 2. 3. In the papists in their contentions for trash rigorous observation of their owne traditions out-sides and superinducements upon the pretious foundation Secondly strong mis-perswasions and selfe-justifications dependant upon our workes and rigid endeavors for salvation at the last Hos. 12. 8. Esai 48. 1. 2. 58. 2. 7. Amos 5. 18. 21. 25. Mic. 3. 11. 12. Zech. 7. 3. 4. 5. 6. Hos. 8. 2. 3. Luk. 18. 11. 12. unregenerat men are often secure men making principles and premises of their owne to build the conclusions of their Salvation upon But beware of it It is a desperate hazard to put eternity upon an adventure to trust in God upon other termes then himselfe hath proposed to be trusted in to lay claime to mercy without any writings or seales or witnesses or patents or acquittance from sinne to have the evidences of hell and yet the presumptions of heaven to be weary of one sabbath here and yet presume upon the expectation of an eternity which shall be nothing else but sabbath In the Civill Law Testes domestici Houshold witnesses who might in reason be presum'd parties are invalid and uneffectuall Surely in matters of Salvation if a man have no witnesse but his owne spirit misinform'd by wrong rules seduc'd by the subtilties of Satan and the deceite of his owne wicked heart carried away with the course of the world and the common prejudices and presumptions of foolish men they will all faile him when it shall be too late God will measure men by his owne line and righteousnesse by his owne plummet and then shall the Haile sweepe away the refuge of lies and waters over-flow the hiding place of those men that made a covenant with death Secondly beware of proud resolutions selfe love reservations wit distinctions evasions to escape the word these are but the weapons of lust but the exaltations of a fleshly minde but submit to the word receive it with meekenesse be willing to count that sense of scripture truest which most restraineth thy corrupt humors and crosseth the imaginations of thy fleshly reason Our owne weapons must be render'd up before the sword of the spirit which is the word of God will be on our
the holy Ghost takes notice of often in the nature of wicked men that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implacable men whom no bounds not limits nor covenants will restraine or keepe in order and againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fierce headstrong violent rash they know not where not when to stop Therefore the Scripture compares it to a breaking forth or violent eruption like that of fire out of an Oven or of mire and dirt out of a raging Sea Men flattet themselves in their sinnes and thinke when they have gone thus or thus farre they will then give over and stop at their pleasure Sed modo modo non habent modum as Austen said of his counterfeite and hypocriticall promises sinne can never finde a center to rest in a fit place to stop at These are but like the foolish conceits of children who not being able to discerne the deception of their owne senses and seeing the Heavens in the Orizon seeme to touch the earth resolve to goe to the place where they conceive them to meete and there to handle and play with the Starres but when they are come thither they finde the distance to be still the same so is it with the foolish hearts of men they conceive after so much gaine or honour or pleasure I shall have my fill and wil then give over but as long as the fountaine within is not stopt the pursuites of lust will bee as violent at last as at first As he in the Fable Expectat dum defluat amnis at ille Labitur labetur So though men thinke that their lusts will at last grow drie and they shall easily step over them unto God yet the truth is the cutragious desires of men will grow stronger and stronger even as a river the farther it goes from the fountaine doth of ten times spread it self the wider The heart is strongly set upon its owne sinne as any Creature is upon its owne motion They set their heart saith the Prophet on their iniquity the heart of the sonnes of men saith Salomon is fully set in them to doe evill As impossible it is for lust to stop it selfe as for the Sea to give over swelling or the fire devouring the matter that is before it The man possest with a Legion of Divels is a notable Emblem of a mans sinfull nature for indeed sin makes a man of the Divels blood yee are the children of your Father the Divell Ioh. 8. 44. He is conversant with nothing but death dead workes dead companions death the service and death the wages He is full of hideous affections he cuts and teares his owne soule the presence of Christ is horrible and affrightfull to him and if hee worship him 't is out of terror and not out of love his name may well bee called Legion for the swarmes the services the strength the warre of lusts in the heart 'T is a torment to lust to come out of a man and to a man to be dispossest of his lusts there will be paine at the parting of sinne the uncleane spirit will teare when he must come out but in this principally was he the picture of our evill nature in that hee was exceeding fierce and untameable no man durst passe by him no chaines were strong enough to hold him and this is the character of wicked men To breake bands and cords asunder and to bee their owne Lords Examples of this fiercenesse of nature the Scripture doth give us abundantly The Iewes are for this propertie compar'd to a swift Dromâ—…dary or to a wilde Assefull of desires that snuffeth up the winde as the use of Horses is in their lust and cannot be turned To a Horse rushing into the battell 't is a similitude from the inundation and precipitancy of torrents that carry downe all before them To a backesliding Heiser whom no bounds can hold but he will breake forth into a large place and have roome to traverse his wayes To a wilde Aâ—…se that goes where his owne will and lust carries him alone by himselfe no Rider to gvide him no bridle to restraine him no presence of God to direct him no Law of God to over-rule him but alone by himselfe as his owne Lord. With very fiercenesse they did even weary themselves in their way Notably did this rage shew it selfe in the Sodomites they reject Lots entreaties they revile his person they grow more outragious and pressed in even to teare open the house Like where unto was the rage of the Pharisies and Iewes against Christ when he had fully convinc'd them of their sinne and his owne innocency and they could hold dispute to longer with him they run from arguments to stones and raylings Thou art a Samaritane and hast a Divell And elsewhere it is said That they were filled with madnesse at the sight of the Miracles which Christ wrought Such was the rage of those which stoned Stephen they gâ—…ashed their teeth they stopped their eares they shouted with their voyce they ran with one accord and stoned him and Saul who was one of them is said to have breathed out threatnings like a tyred Wolfe unto which some make the Prophecy of Iacob touching Beniamin of which Tribe Saul was to allude and elsewhere to have wasted the Churches and to have dragg'd the Saints into prison and to have been exceeding mad against them And such measure himselfe afterwards found combinations uprores assaults draggings wrath clamors confusions rushings in casting off of clothes throwing of dust into the aire any thing to expresse rage and madnesse But you will say All these were at the time wicked men what is that to nature in common Have the Saints such fierce and intemperate affections too Surely while we carry our flesh about us wee carry the seeds of this rage and fury Simeon and Levi were Patriarches of the Church and Heads of the Congregations of Israel yet see how Iacob aggravateth and curseth their fiercenesse In their anger they slew a man in their wrath they diggeâ—… downe a wall Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruell Peter was a holy man yet when the windes blew when the sluces were open and the water had gotten a little passage see how it gathers rage how fierce and mad it growes even against the evidences of his owne heart against the conscience of his owne promises a deniall growes into an oath and that multiplies into cursings and damnings of himselfe for so the word imports an imprecating of Gods wrath and of separation from the presence and glory of God upon himselfe if he knew the man Ionah was a holy Prophet and one whose rebellion and fiercenesse against God might in reason have been quite tam'd by the Sea and the Whale yet looke upon him when his nature gets loose
matter of which is commanded may yet be made in the doing of them evill when that due respect and conformitie which the Law wherein it is commanded requireth is not observed If a man build a wall with pâ—…etence to keepe out the Sea or an enemy and yet leave a wide gap and entrance open to admit them though hee who sees nothing but firme wall may admire the worke yet he who viewes the whole will but deride it so though a maâ—… doe very much though hee proceede so farre as to offer up the children of his body and bestow mountaines of cattell upon God and his service yet omitting righteousnesse and iustice and humiliation before God though to men it may seeme very specious yet unto God it is both abominable and ridiculous As a piece of silver or gold may be shaped into a vessell of dishonor which shall be destin'd unto â—…ordid and uncleane uses so may a worke be compounded of choyce ingredients the materials of it may be the things which God himselfe requires and yet serving to base purposes and directed to our owne ends it may stinke in the nostrils of God and bee by him reiected as a vessell in which there is no pleasure A cup of cold water to a prophet as a prophet shall bee rewarded when a magnificent almes with a pharises trumpet shall be rejected As a small thing which the righteous hath so a small thing which the righteous giveth is better then great riches of the ungodly Fourthly wee are to note what things are requisite unto the doing of a thing so as that it may bee an Act of obedience and thereupon acceptable unto God First then it must have a new principle the Spirit of Christ and the Law of the Spirit of Life and Faith purifying the Conscience from dead workes Secondly in regard of the manner it must bee done with the affection of a childe not out of bondage but in love 2. Tim. 1. 7. In voluntary service and resignation of all the members unto righteousnesse Rom. 6. 19. In universall respect to all the Commandements Psal. 119. 128. In obedience to God the Law-giver for he never obeyes the Law even when he doth the workes therein contained but when hee doth it with all submissiue and loyall affections towards him that commands it Iam. 2. 10 11. this onely is to live unto God and to bring forth fruite unto him Thirdly it must be directed unto holy ends and those are principally foure to which others are to be subordinate but not repugnant First the glory of God we must bring forth fruit and finish our workes and doe all that we have to doe with respect unto his glory Ioh. 15. 8. Ioh 17. 4. 1. Cor. 10. 31. Secondly the Edification Service comfort of the Church that nothing redound to their offence but to their profit and salvation 1. Cor. 10. 3â—… 33. Col. 1. 24. 2. Tim. 2. 10. 2. Cor. 1. 6. Thirdly the Credit honour and passage of the Gospell that it may be furthered and not evill spoken of 2. Cor. 6. 3 4. 1. Cor. 9. 19. 23. Phil. 1. 12. Fourthly a mans owne salvation that he be not after all his paines a cast-away but that he may save himselfe 1. Cor. 9. 27. 1. Tim. 4. 16. 1. Pet. 1. 9. Fourthly all the meanes unto that end must be regular and sutable Evill must not be done to bring good about Rom. 3. 8. and all the circumstances which accompany the action must be right too For as in the body there is not onely requir'd beauty but order and proportion Let the face be of never so delicate and choice complection yet if any part be mis-plac'd it will cause a notable deformitie and uncomelinesse to it so in duties an excellent worke may be so mis-plac'd or mis-tim'd or attended with such incongruous and unsutable circumstances as that it may prove rather a snare of Satan then a fruit of the Spirit Lastly to make it completely acceptable It must passe through the Incense and Intercession of Christ who as he doth by his Merits take away the Guilt of sinne from our persons so by his Intercession he hideth the pollution and adherencie of sinne that is in our services and so giveth us accesse and maketh all our duties acceptable by him to God Ephes. 2. 18. 1. Pet. 2. 5. He hath made us to be priests unto God and our Prayers and good workes as spirituall sacrifices come up before God But it is not sufficient that there be a Priest and an offering except there be an Altar too upon which to offer it for it is the Altar which sanctifieth the offering Now Christ is the Altar which sanctifieth all our spirituall sacrifices Their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine Altar and they shall come up with acceptance on mine Altar Esai 56. 7. 60. 7. These things being thus premised we conclude first A wicked man cannot doe those things at all which are so essentially and inherently good as that the very opâ—… operatum or doing of them is from the spirit of Christ as to love God to trust him and depend upon him for as there are some things in nature which cannot be counterfeited or resembled the shape of a man may bee pictur'd but the life cannot nor the reason nor any thing that doth immediately pertaine to the Essence of man so there are some things in grace which cannot by hypocrisie be done neither in the thing it selfe nor in the manner of doing it because sincerity spiritualnesse and filiall respects belong to the very substance and matter of the duety Secondly other workes whose Goodnesse doth not cleave necessarily to the doing of them but to the manner of doing them wicked men may performe but then they doe them onely ethically and in conspectu hominum with relation to men and manners not spiritually as unto God nor in obedience or respect to him For first the Spirit of Grace is Christs spirit Rom. 8. 9. Gal. 4. 6. and our flesh is quite contrarie unto it Gal. 5. 17. and none have this spirit but they who have fellowship with the father and the sonne and are united unto him 1. Ioh. 4. 13. none of which dignities belong to wicked men Secondly every thing that is spirituall is vitall for the spirit quickneth the spirit of Holinesse never comes but with a Resurrection Rom. 1. 4. Ro. 8. 10 11. 2. Cor. 3. 6. and therefore he is called the spirit of life Rom. 8. 2. but now as the persons of wicked men so their workes are all dead Heb. 9 14. and therfore not being done spiritually obedientially impossible it is that they should in any sense please God Rom. 8. 8. whos 's pure eyes can endure nothing which beareth not in some though most remote degree proportion to his most holy nature 2. Pet. 1. 4. But it may be objected doth God use to doe good to those that hate him and that even for
them by the mixture of our corruptions by passing through our hands as when sweete water passeth through a sinke as that God might justly turne away his eyes from his owne Graces in us not as his Graces but as in us It is true the Spirituall offâ—…rings and sacrifices of the Saints as they come from Gods Grace are cleane and pure a sweet savour acceptable well pleasing and delightfull unto God But yet as they come from us they have iniquitie in them as not being done with that through and most exact conformitie to Gods Will as his Iustice requires and therefore if hee should enter into judgement and marke what is done amisse he might reject our Prayers and throw backe the dung of our sacrifices into our faces for abusing and defiling his Grace For cursedis every one that continueth not in everything written in the Law to doe it Cleane then and acceptable they are First comparatively in regard of wicked mens offerings which are altogether uncleane Secondly by favor and acceptance because God spareth us as a father his sonne that desires to please him Thirdly which is the ground of all by participation with Christ being perfum'd with his incense being strained through his blood being sanctified upon his Altar When he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of gold to purifie the sonnes of Levi and purge them as gold and silver then shall they offâ—…r unto the Lord an offâ—…ring in righteousnesse then shall the offerings of Iudah and Ierusalem bee pleasant unto the Lord. But in it selfe ouâ—… best righteousnesse is as a mâ—…nstruous ragge If God should lay righteousnesse to the line and judgement to the plummet should take such exceptions as he justly might at the most holy action that any Saint can offer to him If hee should shew the conscience how short it falls of that totall perfection which his pure eye requires how many loose thoughts how much deadnesse wearinesse irreverence diffidence vitiatâ—…th oâ—…r purest prayers how many by ends corrupt respects ignorances oversights forgetfulnesse worldly intermixtures deface and blemish our brightest actions how much unbeliefe consists with the strongest faith how many thornes stones birds doe haunt and cover the best ground the most honest and good heart to stifle and steale away the word from it how many weedes doe mingle with the purest corne how much ignorance in the sublimest judgements how much vanitie in the severest and exactest mindes how much loosenesse and digressions in the most sadde and composed thoughts how many impertinencies and irregularities in the most bridled and restrained tongue how much mispence of the seasons and opportunities of Grace in the most thrifty redemption of our time how much want of Compassion and melting affections in our greatest almes of love to the truth and right acceptation of the beautifull 〈◊〉 of peace in our largest contributions how much selfeallowance and dispensâ—…tion to iterate and reâ—…erate ouâ—… smaller errors if in these and a world of the like advantages God should be exact to marke what is done 〈◊〉 who were able to stand in his presence or abide his comming Say the papists what they will of merit of conâ—…ignitie commensurate to eternall life and proportionable to the Iustice and â—…everest scrutinie of the most pure and jealous God yet let the Conscience of the Holiesâ—… of them all bee summon'd to single out the most pure and meritoâ—…ious worke which he ever did and with that to ioyne issue with Gods Iustice to perish or be saved according as that most perfect of all his workes shall appeare â—…ighteous or impure and I dare presume none of them would let their salvation runne a hazard upon that triall So then there is pollution by way of adherencie and contact in the hâ—…st workes of the best men How much more then in the best workes of unregenerate men Their sacrifices uncleane and abominable before God being offered upon the Altar of a defiled conscience Prov. 15. 8. Tit. 1. 15. Their prayers and solemne meeting â—…hatefull loathsome impious Esai 1 13 14 15. For either they are but the howlings of â—…flicted men that crie out for paine but not out of love Hos. 7. 14. or the babling of carelesse â—…nd secure men that cry Lord Lord and mumble a few words without further notice like Balaams Asâ—…e Math. 7 21. or the wishings and wouldings of inordinate men that pray for their lusts and not for their soules Iam 4. 3. Or lastly the bold and unwarranted intrusions of presumptuous men who without respect to the Word Promises or Conditions of God would haue mercie from him without grace and forgivenesse of sinne without for saking of sinne Their mercies are cruell mercies their profession of religion but a forme of godlinesse 2. Tim. 3. 5. All as I said before but the embalming of a carcasse which abates nothing of the hideousnesse of it in the sight of God And now if the best workes of wicked men are so uncleane and full of filthinesse in Gods eyes where then shall appeare their confessed sinnes If their prayers and devotions stinke how much more their oathes and execrations If their sacrifices and that which they offer to God is vnclean how uncleane is their sacriledge and that which they steale from him If their mercies be cruell how cruel their malice murthers brâ—…beries oppressions If there be so much filthinesse in their profession how much more in their persecution in their reviling and scorning of the wayes of God If their fastings and maceration be sinfull and not unto the Lord Zach. 7. 5. What is their drunkennesse their spuing and staggering their clamors and uncleannesse all their cursed complements and ceremonies of damnation O consider this all yee that have hitherto forgotten God! Remember that his eyes are purer then alwayes to behold iniquitie Remember that his spirit will not alwaies strive with flesh Admire his bottomlesse patience which hath thus long suffered thee an uncleane vessel to pollute thy selfe and others and forborne thee with more patience then thou could'st have done a Toade or Serpent then which notwithstanding in his sight thou art farre more uncleane And Remember that his Patience is Salvation and should lead thee to repentance Consider that the Law of the Lord is pure and his feare cleane and his holynesse beautifull the garments with which he clotheth his Priests garments of comelynesse and prayse made for glory and beauty he comes with fire and sope with water and blood to heale our sores to purge our uncleannesse But now if there be lewdnesse in our filthinesse obstinacie in our evill wayes if it suffice us not to have thus long wrought the will of the Gentiles let us with feare consider those wofull denunciations Let him that is filthy be filthy still Ephraim is ioyned to Idols let him alone Because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not bee purged from thy sinnes any more till I have caused
we are to doe after the patterne of him who is set before us The services of Israel after their revolt from the house of David when they built Altars and multiplyed sacrifices were as chargeable as specious and in humane discourse every whit as rationall as those at Ierusalem yet wee finde when they would bee wiser then God and prescribe the way wherein they ment to worship him all ended in shame and dishonor Bethel which was Gods house before is turned into Bethaven a house of vanitie Israel hath forgotten his Maker and buildeth Temples saith the Prophet One would thinke that hee who buildes temples had God who was in thē to be worshipped often in his mind but to remember God otherwise then hee hath required to build many temples when hee had appointed but one temple and one altar for all that people to resort unto this was by forgetting Gods Will and Word to forget likewise his service and worship because to serve him otherwise then he requireth is not to worship but to rob and mocke him 1 In Gods service it is a greater sinne to doe that which wee are not to doe then not to doe that which we are commanded This is but a sinne of omission but that a sinne of sacriledge and high contempt in this we charge the law onely with difficultie but in that with folly in this wee discover our weaknes to doe the will but in that we declare our impudence and arrogancie to controle the wisedome of God In this wee acknowledge our owne insufficiencie in that we deny the all-sufficiencie and plenitude of Gods owne Law But what ever opinion men have of their owne wisedomes and contributions in Gods service yet he esteemes them all but as ◅udicrous things as games and playes and acting of mimicall dancings The people sate downe to eate and drinke and rose up to play What ever action therefore you goe about doe it by Rule enquire out of the scriptures whether Christ would have done it or no at least whether he allow it or no. It is true somethings are lawfull and expedient with us which were not suteable unto the person of Christ. Marriage is honourable with all other men but it did not befit his person who came into the world to spirituall purposes onely to beget sonnes and daughters unto God and to be mystically married unto his Church To write bookes is commendable with men because like Abel being dead they may still speake and teach those who never saw them But it would have beene derogatory to the person and unbecomming the office of Christ. For it is his prerogative to bee in the midst of the seven candlestickes to be present to all his members to teach by power and not by ministery to teach by his Spirit and not by his penne to teach the hearts of men and not their eyes or eares He hath no mortalitie distance or absence to be by such meanes supplyed It became him to commit these ministeriall actions to his servants and to reserve to himselfe that great honour of writing his Law in the hearts of his people and making them to be his epistle But yet I say as in these things wee must respect his allowance so in others let us ref◅ect upon his example When thou art tempted to loosenesse and immoderate living aske thy conscience but this question would Christ have d◅unke unto swinishnesse or eaten unto excesse would hee have wasted his pretious time at slewes stages or tavernes or taken delight in sinfull and desperate fellowships Did Christ frequently pray both with his Disciples and alone by himselfe and shall Inever either in my family or in my closet thinke upon God did Christ open his wounds and shall not I open my mouth was not his blood too pretious to redeeme and is my breath too good to instruct his Church was Christ mercifull to his enemies and shall I bee cruell to his members Againe for the manner of Christs obedience did Christ serve God without all selfe-ends meerely in obedience and to glorifie him and shall I make Gods worship subordinate to my aimes and his religion serve turnes shall I doe what I doe without any love or ioy meerely out of slavish feare and compulsion of conscience Thus if we did resolve our services into their true originals and measure them by the Holynesse of Christ and have him ever before our eyes it would be a great meanes of living in comfort and spirituall conformitie to Gods Law And there are amongst diverse others two great encouragements thereunto First while we follow Christ wee are out of all danger his Angels have us in their armes we are under the protection of his promises as every good subject in the kings way is under the kings protection Peter never denyed Christ nor was assaulted by the servants of the high priest till hee gave over following him Secondly the more wee follow Christ the neerer still we come unto him Because Christ is entered into his rest he is now at home hee is not now in motion but he sitteth still at his Fathers right hand and hath no higher nor no further to goe and therefore so long as I hasten and presse forward in his way I must needes be the neerer unto him Your Salvation is neerer saith the Apostle then when you first beleeved But a man will say how shall I doe to follow Christ I answere in one word denie thy selfe and thou dost then follow him get out of thine owne way and thou canst not misse of his The world never rules us but by our owne lusts Sathan never overcomes us but by our owne willes and with our owne weapons when he is resisted hee flyes As Hanibal was wont to say that the onely way to fight against Rome was in Italie so the other enemies of our salvation know that there is no conquering the soule but in its owne waye As soone as any man forsakes his owne way Christ is at hand to lead him into his He will bee wisedome to those that denie their owne reason he will be Redemption to those that despise their owne merits hee will bee sanctification to those that cast of their owne lusts hee will be salvation to those that relinquish their owne ends he will be all things to those that are nothing to themselves Now we have as I may so speake two selfes A selfe of nature and a selfe of sinne and both must be denyed for Christ. This wee must ever cast away as a snare and that wee must be ever ready to lay downe as a sacrifice when he is pleased to set himselfe in competition with it And so much for the Life of Holynesse which wee have in Christ. Lastly he that hath the Sonne hath the Life of glory assured to him For Hee hath made us to sit together with him in Heavenly places and when He appeares we shall bee like him
Hee shall change our vile bodies into the similitude of his Glorious bodie When Hee comes we shall meete him and be ever with him Hee is ascended to his Father and our Father to his God and our God and therefore to his Kingdome and our Kingdome His by personall proprietie and hypostaticall union ours by his purchase and merit and by our mysticall union and fellowship with him He is gone to prepare a place for us In Earth Hee was our suretie to answere the penaltie of our sinnes and in Heaven He is our Advocate to take seifin and possession of that Kingdome for us Our Captaine and Forerunner and high Priest who hath not onely carried our names but hath broken off the vaile of the Sanctuary and given us accesse into the Holyest of all And hee that hath the Sonne hath this life alreadie in three regards First in pâ—…etio he hath the price that procured it esteemed his It was bought with the pretious blood of Christ in his Name and to his use and it was so bought for him that he hath a present right and claime unto it It is not his iâ—… Reversion after an expiration of any others right there are no leaseâ—… nor reversions in Heaven but it is his as an inheritance is the heires after the death of the Ancestor who yet by minoritie of yeeres or distance of place may occupie and possesse it by some other person Secondly Hee hath it in promisso He hath Gods Charter his Assurance sealed with an oath and a double Sacrament to establish his heart in the expectation of it By two immutable things faith the Apostle namely the Word and the Oath of God wherein it was impossible for him to he we have strong consolation and great ground of hope which hope is sure and stedfast and leadeth us unto that place which is within the vaile whither Christ our Forerunner is gone before us Thirdly He hath it in primitijs in the earnest and first fruites and hansell of it in those few clusters of grapes and bunches of figges those Graces of Christs Spirit that peace comfort serenitie which is shed forth into the heart already from that Heavenly Canaan The Holy Spirit of Promise is the earnest of our inheritance untill the Redemption or full fruition and Revelation of our purchased possession to the prayse of his Glory The Graces of the Spirit in the soule are as certaine and infallible evidences of Salvation as the day starre or the morning aurora is of the ensuing day or Sunne-rising For all spirituall things in the Soule are the beginnings of Heaven parcels of that Spirit the fulnesse and residue whereof is in Christs keeping to adorne us with when he shall present us unto his Father But this Doctrine of the Life of Glory is in this life more to be made use of then curiously to bee enquired into O then where the Treasure is let the heart be where the body is let the Eagles resort if wee are already free men of heaven let our thoughts our language our conversation our Trading be for Heaven Let us set our faces towards our home Let us awake out of sleepe considering that now our salvation is neerer then when we first beleeved If wee have a hope to be like him at his comming let us purifie our selves even as hee is pure since there is a price a high calling a crowne before us let us presse forward with all violence of devotion never thinke our selves farre enough but prepare our hearts still and lay hold on every advantage to further our progresse Since there is a rest remaining for the people of God let us labour to enter into it and to hold fast our profession that as well absent as present we may be accepted of him Secondly since we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the Heavens Let us feele the burden of our fleshly corruptions and groane after our redemption Let us long for the revelation of the Sonnes of God and for his appearing as the Saints under the Altar How long Lord Iesus Holy and Iust. Thirdly let us with enlarg'd and ravish'd affections with all the vigor and activitie of enflamed hearts recount the great love of God who hath not onely delivered us from his wrath but made us Sonnes married his owne infinite Maiestie to our nature in the unitie of his Sonnes person and made us in him Kings Priests and Heires unto God Beloved what manner of Love How unsearchable How bottomlesse how surpassing the apprehensions of Men or Angels is the Love of God to us saith the Apostle that wee should be called the Sonnes of God Lastly if God will glorifie us with his Life hereafter let us labour as much as wee can to glorifie Him in our lives here It was our Saviours argument who might have entered into Glory as his owne without any such way of procurement if his owne voluntarie undertaking the office of Mediator had not concluded him Glorifie me with thy selfe with the glorie which I had with thee before the World was for I have gloryfied thee on Earth I have finished the worke which thou gavest mee to doe If we are indeede perswaded that there is laid up for us a Crowne of righteousnesse we cannot but with Saint Paul resolve to fight a good fight to finish our course to keepe the faith to bring forth much fruite that our Father may be glorified in us And now having unfolded this threefold Life which the faithfull have in Christ wee may further take notice of three attributes or properties of this life both to humble and to secure us and they are all couched in one word of the Apostle your life is hid with Christ in God It is in Christs keeping as in the hands of a faithfull depositary and it is a Life in God a full Life a derivation from the Fountaine of Life where it is surer and sweeter then in any Cisterne Here then are three properties of a Christians Life in Christ first Obscuritie secondly Plentie thirdly safetie or Eternitie First it is an obscure life a secret aâ—d mysterious life so the Apostle calleth Godlynesse a Mysterie As there is a mysterie of iniquitie and the hidden things of uncleannesse so there is a Mysterie of Godlynesse and the hidden man of the heart The Life of Grace first is hidden totally from the wicked A stranger doth not intermeddle with a righteous mans joy The naturall man knoweth not any things of Gods spirit Saint Peter gives the reason because he is blinde and cannot see a farre off Now the things of God are deepe things and high things upward they have too much brightnesse and downeward they have too much darknesse for purblinde
Loved us when wee were his enemies and enemies we were not but by wicked workes Now then if wicked workes could not prevent the Love of God why should wee thinke that they can nullyfie or destroy it If His Grace did prevent sinners before their repentance that they might returne shall it not much more preserve repenting sinners that they may not perish If the masse guilt and greatnesse of Adams sinne in which all men were equally sharers and in which equalitie God looked upon us with Love and Grace then which sinne a greater I thinke cannot be committed against the Law of God If the bloody and crimsin sinnes of the unconverted part of our life wherein we drew iniquitie with cordes of vanitie and sinne as it were with cart-ropes If neither iniquitie transgression nor sinne neither sin of nature nor sinne of course and custome nor sinne of rebellion and contumacie could pose the goodnesse and favour of God to us then nor intercept or frustrate his Counsell of loving us when wee were his enemies why should any other sinnes overturne the stability of the same love and counsell when we are once his Sonnes and have a spirit given us to bewaile and lament our falls I cannot here omit the excellent words of P Fulgentius to this purpose The same Grace saith he of Gods Immutable Counsell doth both beginne our merit unto righteousnesse and consummate it unto Glorie doth here make the will not to yeelde to the infirmitie of the flesh and doth hereafter free it from all infirmitie doth here renew it Continuo Iuvamine and elsewhere Iugi auxilio with an uninterrupted supportance and at last bring it to a full Glory Secondly Gods Promise flowing from this Love and Grace An everlasting Covenant will I make saith God and observe how it comes to be everlasting and not frustrated or made temporary by us I will not turne away from them saith the Lord to doe them good True Lord wee know thou dost not repent thee of thy Love but though thou turne not from us O how fraile how apt are wee to turne away from thee and so to nullifie this thy Covenant of mercie unto our selves Nay saith the Lord I will put my feare into their hearts and they shall not depart from me So elsewhere the Lord tels us that his Covenant should be as the water of Noah the sinnes of men can no more utterly cancell or reverse Gods Covenant of mercie towards them then they can bring backe Noahs flood into the World againe though for a moment he may bee angry and hide His face yet His mercie in the maine is great and everlasting The Promises of God as they have Truth so they have Power in them they doe not depend upon our resolutions whether they shall bee executed or no but by Faith apprehending them and by Hope waiting upon God in them they frame and accommodate the heart to those conditions which introduce then Execution God maketh us to doe the things which He commandeth we do not make Him to doe the things which He promiseth Tee are kept saith the Apostle by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation Faith is first by Gods Power wrought and preserved It is the Faith of the operation of God namely that powerfull operation which raised Christ from the dead and your Faith standeth not in the wisedome of men but in the Power of God And then it becomes an effectuall instrument of the same power to preserve us unto Salvation They shall be all taught of God and every man that hath heard and learned of the Father commeth unto mee There is a voluntarie attendance of the heart of man upon the ineffable sweetnesse of the Fathers teaching to conclude this point with that excellent and comfortable speech of the Lord in the prophet I the Lord change not therefore ye Sonnes of Iacob are not consumed It is nothing in or from your selves but onely the immutabilitie of my Grace and Promises which preserveth you from being consumed Thirdly the Obsignation of the Spirit ratifying and securing these promises to the hearts of the faithfull for the spirit is the hansell earnest and seale of our Redemption and it is not onely an obsignation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto redemption arguing the certainty of the end upon condition of the meanes but it is an establishing of us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too into Christ as a meanes unto that end so that from the first fruites of the Spirit a man may conclude his interest in the whole at last as Saint Paul from the resurrection of Christ the first fruites argueth to the finall accomplishment of the resurrection Fourthly the nature and effects of Faith whose propertie it is to make future things present to the beleever and to give them a Being and by consequence a necessitie and certaintie to the apprehensions of the Soule even when they have not a Being in themselves Saint Paul call's it the subsistencie of things to come and the evidence and demonstration of things not seene which our Saviours words doe more fully explaine He that drinketh my blood hath eternall Life and shall never thirst Though Eternall Life bee to come in regard of the full fruition yet it is present already in regard of the first fruites of it And therefore wee finde our Saviour take a future medium to prove a present Blessednesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yee are blessed when men shall hate you c for great is your reward in Heaven Which inference could not be sound unlesse that future medium were certaine by the Power of Faith giving unto the promises of God as it were a presubsistencie For it is the priviledge of Faith to looke upon things to come as if they were alreadie conferr'd upon us And the Apostle useth the like argument Sinne shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace This were a strange inference in naturall or civill things to say you shall not die because you are in health or you shall not be rejected because you are in favour But the Covenant of Grace being seall'd by an Oath makes all the grants which therein are made irreversible and constant So that now as when a man is dead to the Being of sinne as the Saints departed this life are the Being of sinne doth no more trouble them nor returne upon them so when a man is dead to the dominion of sinne that dominion shall never any more returne upon him Consider further the formall effect of Faith which is to unite a man unto Christ. By meanes of which vnion Christ and we are made one Bodie for He that is joyned to Christ is one and the Apostle saith that He is the Saviour of his Bodie and then surely of every member of his Bodie too for the members have all care one
God beleeve and all this strength and comfort is thine leane not upon thine owne wisedome trust not thine owne righteousnesse arrogate nothing to thy selfe but impotencie to good no strength of thy selfe but against thy selfe and Gods Grace no power but to resist and withstand the Spirit But rest only upon the Promises and Power of Him who is Alpha and Omega the Author and Finisher of thy Faith Who is a Head to take care of his weakest members When thou art as weake as a worme in thine owne sense yet feare not O worme Iacob be not dismaide O Men of Israel saith the Lord for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will helpe thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousnesse that is with the strength of my Truth and Promises How shall I give thee up Ephraim It is spoken to backsliding Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim That is How shall I make mine owne Church as the cities of Sodome My heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together and marke the reason of all I am God and not man Though you are Men subject to many changes and miscarriages yet I am not a Man that I should repent of my goodnesse and therefore I will not turne to destroy Ephraim But now as men who looke upon the Sunne when they looke downward againe upon darker objects can scarse see or distinguish any thing so ought it to bee with us our looking up unto God should make us see nothing in ourselves but matter to be humbled by and driven backe unto him againe If once the strong man beginne to glorie in his strength or the wise man in his wisedome If our prosperity and security make us resolve with David that we shall never be moved If because we finde our corruptions wounded and mortified wee beginne to insult over them more with our pride then with our faith How easie and just is it with God to let in Satan upon us to remove his hand from under us to overshadow and withdraw His countenance from us to set on our very wounded corruptious upon us to burne up our citie and peradventure to plunge us in the guilt of some such fearefull sinnes as at the very names and first suggestions whereof wee would haply before have beene startled and amazed Alas what are wee to David and Peter to Salomon and Hezekiah men of such dayly communion and intimate acquaintance with the Almightie And yet notwithstanding what fearefull testimonies have they left upon record for all posteritie to take notice what a fraile and inconstant creature man is when once Gods Spirit departs from him That the strength of the greatest champions in the Church of God is but like the strength of Sampson of whom in all his great exployts the Scripture saith that The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and when hee was overcome that the Lord was departed from him We should therefore labour to rejoyce in the Lord with trembling to worke out our salvation with feare to pray that wee may be delivered from our selves and from the traines of Satan that wee may never know by our owne fearefull experience into what an incredible excesse of sinning our flesh though otherwise mortified would breake forth if God should a little subduct his hand and give us over a while to the violence of our owne passions to the treacherie of our owne hearts Wee should be very watchfull and cautious against our selvees that wee presume not to sinne because Grace hath abounded How shall wee that are dead to sinne live any longer therein saith the Apostle What a monstrous perverting of the grace and mercie of God is this to build straw and stubble upon so pretious a foundation Surely wee would esteeme that man prodigiously foolish and contumelious unto nature who should spend his time substance and industrie to finde out a perverse philosophers stone that should turne all the gold it touched into lead or drosse how injurious then and reprochfull are they to the grace of God who extract their owne presumptions out of His mercie and turne the redundancie of divine Grace into an advantage and priviledge of sinning As if Gods mercie had no other use then a dogges grasse or a drunkards vomit or a Papists confession to his Priest to absolve us for some sinnes that there might be roome made for more Surely Grace teacheth men to make other conclusions from Gods mercie Deale bouâ—…tifully with thy seruant that I may keepe thy Word was Davids inference from Gods favour And Saint Paul assures us that none but hard and impenitent hearts despise the goodnesse and riches of Gods patience and forbearance not knowing that the goodnesse of God should lead them to repentance It is the worke of grace to re-imprint the image of God in us to conforme us unto Christ to bend and incline the heart to a Spirituall delight in the Law to remoove in some measure the ignorance of our mindes that wee may see the beautie and wonders of Gods Law and the difficultie and frowardnesse of the fleshly will against grace that Gods Commands may not be grievous but sweete unto us These are the branches and properties of that Life which we have from Christ. And wee have them from Him at the Sonne as a middle person betweene us and his Father First because the Sonne hath His Fathers Seale Hath Iudgement Power libertie to dispose of and dispense Life and Salvation to whom He will Labour for the Meate that endureth unto Eternall Life which the Sonne of Man shall give unto you for Him hath God the Father sealed Secondly because the Son is in his Fathers bosome hath His heart His eare His affections and therefore He is heard alwayes in whatsoever Hee desireth for any of His members and this interest in His Fathers Love was that by which He raised Lazarus unto Life againe Lastly he that hath the Sonne hath the greatest gift which the Father ever gave unto the World Hee cannot denie Life where He hath given the Sonne He cannot with-hold silver where Hee hath given gold and Diamonds If He spared not His Son but delivered Him up for us all how shall He not with Him freely give us all things Now our life is conveyed from Christ unto us First by Imputation of His merit whereby our persons are made righteous and acceptable unto God Secondly by Infusion or communion with His Spirit which sanctifies our nature and enables us to doe spirituall services For though we exclude workes from Iustification formally considered yet we require them of every Iustified man neither doth any Faith Iustifie but that which worketh by Love though it justifie not under that reason as a working Faith but under that relative office of receiving and applying Christ. Thirdly by
he must come And now when we have Christ how carefull should we be to keepe Him how tender and watchfull over all our behaviours towards Him lest Hee be grieved and depart againe The Spirit of the Lord is a delicate spirit most sensible of those injuries which his friends doe him Let us therefore take heede of violating afflicting discouraging grieving this Spirit which is the bond of all our union and interest with Christ in any of those his sacred breathings and operations upon the Soule But when He teacheth let us submit and obey receive the beleefe and the love of His Truth when He promiseth let us neither distrust nor despise but embrace as true and admire as pretious all the offers which He makes to us when Hee contends with our lusts in His Word and secret suggestions let him not alwayes strive but let us give up our fleshly affections to bee crucified by Him when Hee woes and invites us when Hee offers to lead and to draw us let us not stop the eare or pull away the shoulder or draw backward like froward children or cast cold water in the face of Grace by thwarting the motions and rebelling against the dictates thereof but let us yeeld our selves unto Him captivate all our lusts and consecrate all our powers and submit all our desires to His rule and government and then when Hee hath beene a Spirit of union to incorporate us into Christs Body and a Spirit of unction to sanctifie us with His Grace Hee will undoubtedly bee a Spirit of comfort and assurance to seale us unto the day of our full redemption THE LIFE OF CHRIST PHILIP 3. 10. That I may know Him and the Power of His Resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings THe purpose of the Apostle in this place is to arme the church of the Philippians against those false Iudaizing Teachers that Confounded Christ and Moses Circumcision and the Gospell together This he doth by Arguments Personall from men and by arguments reall from the matter it selfe Arguments Personall are first from the disposition quality End of those false teachers whom he describes ver 3. They are evill trees and therefore no great heed to be given to the fruits they beare to the doctrines they obtrude They are Dogs uncleane beasts that barke onely for their bellies and doe not onely barke but watch their times to bite too They are Euill workers though they come like fellow workers with Christ pretending much strictnes in the edification of the Church yet indeed their businesse is only to pull downe and to pervert They are the Concision where the Apostle by an Iâ—…onicall paranomasia shewes the end of their doctrines They preach indeed Circumcision but their businesse is schisme and Concision In the Law it was Circumcision Gods ordinance but now being by Christ abolished it is nothing at all but a bare Concision or cutting of the flesh and will in the Event prove a rent and schisme in the Church The Second personall Argument is taken from the Apostles owne condition who neither by nature nor Education was an enemie to legall Ceremonies who in all points had as great reason to vindicate the Law and to boast in fleshly priuiledges as any of those False Teachers ver 4. He was by nature an Israelite of the whole bloud as well as they by Education of the strictest sect of all a pharise by custome and practice a persecutor of the Church under that very name because the law he had been bred under was engdanger'd by that new way and in his course of life altogether unblameable in regard of legall Obedience and observations and lastly in his opinions touching them he counted them gainfull things and rested upon them for his salvation till the Lord opened his eyes to see the light of the Glorious Gospell of God in the face of Iesus Christ. The arguments from the matter are first from the Substance of which Circumcision was the shadow Wee are the Circumcision who worship God in the spirit and reioyce in Christ Iesus c. Vers. 3. They boast in the flesh they have a Concision but we are the Circumcision because we have the fruite and Truth of Circumcision the spirituall worship of God which is opposite to externall Ceremonies Ioh. 4. 23. Secondly from the plenitude and all sufficiencie of Christ which stands not in neede of any legall accession to peece it out and this the Apostle shewes by his owne practise and experience What things were 〈◊〉 to me those I counted losse for Christ because they were things that kept him from Christ before and he repeats the same words Confidently againe that he might not to be thought to have spoken them unaduisedly or in a heate yea doubtles and I count all things but losse for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things As a merchant in a tempest is contented to Suffer the losse of all his goods to redeeme his life or rather as a man will be content to part with all his owne beggerly furniture for a Iewell of greate value Math. 13. 44. Onely here wee are to note that the Apostle did not suffer the losse of them quoad Substantiam in regard of the Substance of the duties but quoad qualitatem et officium Iustificandi in regard of that dependance and Expectation of happines which he had from them before Neither did he onely Suffer the losse of them as a man may doe of things which are excellent in themselves and use as a merchant throwes his wares out of the ship when yet he dearly loves the and delights in theÌ„ but he shews what estimation he had of them I count them dung that I may win Christ I Count them then filthy carrion so the word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 garbage and filth that is thrown out to dogs things which dogs such as he describes these false teachers to be may delight in but the spirit of God in a sincere hart cannot relish nor sauor in comparison of Christ. And may be found in him when I shall appeare before the face of God or may finde in him All that I loose for him that is a most plentifull recompence for any legall commodities which I part from for his sake not Having mine owne righteousnesse c. Here the Apostle distinguisheth of a twofold Righteousnesse Legall which is a mans owne because a man must come by it by working himselfe Rom. 10. 5. And Evangelicall which is not a mans owne but the righteousnes of God Rom. 3. 21. 22. Freely given to us by grace through Christ. That I may know Him c. That I may have the Experience of his Grace and mercy in Iustifying me frely by faith through the vertue of his suffrings and resurrection Here then we have these two things set down first the Pretiousnesse secondly the nature of